No Joke

24 sep 201622 okt 2016

Anbefalet under Det skal du se! uge 38
V1 Gallery is pleased to present NO JOKE – a new collaborative series of 37 black and white photo based works created by Roger Ballen and Asger Carlsen.
For the past three years Roger Ballen (born 1950, New York, lives and works in Johannesburg) and Asger Carlsen (born 1973, Denmark, lives and works in New York) have engaged in an artistic ping-pong across oceans and time zones.

Roger Ballen and Asger Carlsen: Carlsen and Ballen, 2016

The two artists have exchanged ideas, sketches and works and reworked them manually and digitally, blurring the lines of authorship and process. The result is a unique and energetic body of work that convey the distinct languages of both artists while at the same time expanding their collaborative expression. Both Ballen and Carlsen have used new techniques and invested themselves wholeheartedly in the project. Both artists appear frequently in the new works, mutated, joined and fragmented.

NO JOKE is a hauntingly beautiful surreal voyage. The works are visceral, vicious, humorous, explicit and tenderly intimate at once. The two authors mutual admiration, trust and respect shines through. The series is Robin Hood avant-garde – Brassai, Dubuffet, Bacon, Moore, Sonic Youth, Aphex Twin and Die Antwoord are all in the mix. It is refined DIY visual punk and could not have been created before high-speed Internet, Photoshop and ultra fast processors.

Do not come looking for answers. NO JOKE taps into the subconscious of both artists and viewer. The tableaus merge portrait, sculpture and collage with derelict rooms, mark making, animals and man. Gender, sexuality and identity are hijacked and rerouted. The works seem like visions from a dream you never had but instantly recognize with both body and mind.

NO JOKE premiers in its entirety in Berlin, gallery Dittrich & Schlechtriem, and Copenhagen at the same time. An edited presentation has been selected to be featured at Paris Photo in November 2016. Roger Ballen has received critical acclaim for his work the past 40 years. He has exhibited extensively in institutions and galleries throughout the world – a true conceptual pioneer. Asger Carlsen has recently received critical praise for his Hester and Wrong series. He has been heralded as a formidable creator – his transgressive practice is yet to be defined. For the past 6 years, he has exhibited widely in galleries and museums and was recently included in the 9th Berlin Biennale.